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People make Glasgow — and this year proves it

The grit, spirit and compassion of Glaswegians has pulled us through, says Anna Burnside

Anna Burnside

December 28 2014, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Glasgow strong sense of community will help it ‘pull through’ tragedy (Michael McGurk/REX)

Glaswegians are a proud bunch. The things we value might not be the civic totems of other cities but we will defend our statue of the Duke of Wellington with the traffic cone on his head and our Tunnock’s Tea Cakes until the bitter end. And when something grisly happens, like a bin lorry careening through a crowded, pre-Christmas shopping area, we have a strong sense of community to pull us through.

This manifested itself in the minutes afterwards, when shoppers, lunchers and workers heading back to the office raced to help the injured. A fellow journalist, who could have been a casualty herself had she not decided, before leaving Pret A Manger, to go to the lavatory, spent 40 minutes comforting a barely conscious…